As Wal-Mart FLW Tour anglers gear up for the final stretch of their run toward the championship, they will face an array of fishing choices at the second-to-last stop of the regular season. Kentucky and Barkley lakes should prove to be wide open come tournament time, with many pros electing to go shallow, deep and everywhere in between.
As he prefished Monday, Paducah, Ky., pro Terry Bolton had trouble deciding which patterns he should lock into this week, and not because he wasn’t catching any bass.
“I’ve caught just enough fishing both shallow and deep to confuse the heck out of myself,” he said. “I think we’ll see a whole lot of different patterns, and we’ll see guys fishing all over the map. Some will be caught flipping, casting worms, and others on a topwater. Then there’s always crankbaits, Carolina rigs, you name it.”
Figuring out whether to go shallow or deep will likely be the prevailing theme this week, as it was during the May 2004 FLW Tour event here. That year, it was about evenly split between the shallow and deepwater anglers, though the deep crankers tended to come out ahead in the end. This year, the water level on Kentucky Lake is just a little bit above summer pool, which means there’s some water in the bushes and could tip the scale in favor of the shallow-water fishermen working shoreline cover.
“I think they’re going to both fish equally the same, whether you’re fishing shallow on Kentucky or shallow on Barkley. They’ll fish pretty equal, and I don’t think it gives you an advantage to fish one or the other,” Bolton said. “We’re going to see a variety of things, some deep and some shallow fishing. I think it’ll be a carbon copy of what it was two years ago, but I don’t know. Maybe the shallow bite’s a little better this year.”
Adding to options is the spawn, which is still occurring in various parts of both the huge lakes. Bolton reported temperatures ranging from 68 to 71 degrees in water where he was practicing.
“Fish are still spawning, and of course, there’s postpawn fish. A lot of them are starting to make their way out. I’m sure that, with the full moon this week, there are going to be some that haven’t spawned yet that will come up,” Bolton said. “I think it will probably be kind of sectional, as far as the spawn. But there are still fish guarding fry, so I think we’ll see lot of topwaters, things like that.”
Still, flippers and pitchers might not have a cakewalk in the shallows.
“The water’s up in the bushes some, but not like a flipper would want it,” said pro David Dudley, who finished third here in 2004. “Every year we’ve been here, it’s been different. I don’t know if we’ve ever been to this lake when the water’s only at summer pool. It’s in the bushes, but not really into the bushes. I wish it was up a little bit more so it would help us shallow-water boys out a little bit, but it’s not.”
To that end, expect a lot of the experienced deep-water, crankbait-type anglers to work patterns on points and ledges, targeting postspawners as they move out.
“A lot of times, you take a chance fishing deep this time of year. The fish just aren’t as aggressive. I don’t know. I’ve got a lot of really unsettled feelings about fishing out deep,” said Bolton, a renowned deep-water angler. “We’re looking at thunderstorms the first day of the tournament, with temperatures in the mid-70s and a chance of rain every day. That doesn’t help the fish out on structure, because they’re not feeling real good yet. With cloud cover and cooler water temperatures, some of those fish might turn around and go back to bank. When they’re still sick from spawn, they’re not going to bite really well, and the shallow fish are more aggressive.”
Still, despite the seemingly countless options facing anglers this week – or maybe because of them – expect more than a few big bass to come across the scale. Bolton estimated that it will take 16 to 17 pounds a day for the pros to make the cut.
Lake facts
Spanning the western portion of Tennessee and southwest Kentucky, Kentucky Lake stretches 184 miles in length. The largest Tennessee Valley Authority reservoir in existence, Kentucky Lake covers 2,380 miles of shoreline – 355 miles of which are island shoreline – and boasts 160,000 surface acres of water. Kentucky Lake is home to healthy populations of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass, crappie, bluegill, catfish and sauger.
Catch the action
The full field competes in the two-day opening round for one of 10 slots in Friday’s competition, based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared for day three, and co-angler competition concludes following Friday’s weigh-in. The top 10 pros continue competition Saturday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from days three and four.
Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from Kentucky Dam Marina. Wednesday and Thursday’s weigh-ins will also be held at the Marina beginning at 3 p.m. Central. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 310 W. 5th St. in Benton beginning at 4 p.m.
The community is invited to attend the free Family Fun Zone Friday and Saturday outside the weigh-in tent in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The Family Fun Zone, which opens at 2 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday, features interactive displays, product samples and games for the entire family to enjoy.
FLW Kentucky Lake on TV and the Net
Coverage of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour at Kentucky Lake will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on June 25 and July 2 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 350 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.
You can also catch all the weigh-in action at FLWOutdoors.com with FLW Live. The first weigh-in will be broadcast Wednesday, May 10, at 3 p.m. Central time and will continue throughout all four days’ weigh-ins.
Previous FLW Kentucky Lake winners
2004 – Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C.
2003 – Steve Kennedy, Auburn, Ala.
1998 – Dan Morehead, Paducah, Ky.
1997 – David Fritts, Lexington, N.C.
1996 – George Cochran, Hot Springs, Ark.